


Forelsket (Klance)

by klancecoffee



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gay, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, klance, newtown, vld
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 10:10:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21117041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klancecoffee/pseuds/klancecoffee
Summary: Keith’s life is changed forever when he’s suddenly forced to move from skid row to a peaceful small town. His old habits must die and he finds himself changing for the better, especially when a charming brunette catches his eye.(Title means ‘the euphoria of falling in love in Danish)(This fic is also on Wattpad)





	1. Chapter 1

Keith dangled his feet off the roof, careful not to make too much noise and wake Shiro. 

At night, the entire street was lit up and he could see all the nooks and crannies of the place he called home. Outsiders, however, would most likely call it ‘skid row.’  
He loved it despite all its flaws, after all it was his home. He knew every corner, every gang, which colour to wear in all the different spots, and, most importantly, he knew where to hide from the cops.

He could be called a teen delinquent, but who isn’t around here? It’s kill or be killed. He couldn’t recall how many times he got his head flushed down a toilet at the local high school before he started fighting back. Now everybody knows not to mess with him.  
He’s not too big and he’s not too smart, but he runs like he’s just stolen the crown jewels and knows a thousand ways to kill someone with a knife. 

It brought a smile to Keith’s face remembering how many times he used to get beaten up. He chuckled darkly thinking about the face on his tormentors before he left a huge gash on the side of the ringleader’s face. Back then he was a little weakling, chubby with a squeaky voice. Now he was in junior year and was lean but toned, and his voice was ‘husky,’ according to Shiro. His brother had raised him after they had been orphaned, and Keith was endlessly thankful, even though he tried to hide it. 

Suddenly Keith heard footsteps behind him and he whipped around, pulling his knife from its makeshift sheath and holding it to Shiro’s throat. Wait, Shiro!

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Keith grinned breathlessly, putting his knife away.

“Hey, I’m impressed by your speed at least. I heard you up here and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to tell you something I’ve been putting off.”

Okay, now Keith’s intrigued.

“Uh, go ahead Shiro.”

“Great,” Shiro nervously mumbled, sitting down next to his brother. “So, you know how I have this shitty job here that pays fuck all?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I got offered a new job.”

Keith clapped Shiro on the back. “Hell yeah, man!”

Shiro didn’t smile. “It’s in Fort Gatin.”

Keith was familiar with the name. Fort Gatin sat a couple miles from the city.  
“What does that mean?”

“It means we have to move, Keith,” Shiro sighed, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

Keith shrugged the hand away. “When?!”  
“Tomorrow?... Let’s just say I procrastinated… a lot.”

Keith stared at Shiro, mouth agape. He’d grown up in this ghetto, and now he suddenly has to leave for a town he knew nothing about?! And in such short notice?!  
“Shiro, I-“

“Can’t leave? I knew you’d say that, and I’m sorry but if you want a better life for us, you have to. The house we’re moving into- I’ve saved enough to be able to put a down payment on it, and then I’ll finally be able to own my own house! The kids at the local high school are supposed to be really welcoming. It’s a small place, so you’ll get to know everyone, just like you do here.”

There was a short silence as Keith paused to think, processing all the sudden information..  
“Fine. But I’m still mad at you for this.”

Shiro sigh-laughed in relief and wrapped Keith in a bear hug.  
“I can’t wait, man. This is going to be amazing.”

-

It didn’t take long for Keith to pack, as basically all he owned were knives, gay porn magazines and band posters. Oh, and a few pairs of shoplifted clothes.

In the morning they were on the road out of town. Keith flipped off everyone at the school as they rode past, yelling swear words out the window. It wasn’t like he had anyone special to say goodbye to, only drinking buddies, smoking buddies and fuck buddies.

In no time their new home was coming into sight. It was a cute, lazy little town, reminiscent of a cartoon Keith used to watch. Children ran around under sprinklers. Adults were sitting on porches, taking advantage of the summer haze to drink beer and barbecue sausages. Keith almost felt jealous as he looked around at these people who had lived carefree lives. There were no bars on windows or smashed bottles littering the streets.

“It’s so pretty,” Shiro admired, his eyes filled with stars. They eventually pulled into the driveway of a little bungalow with a dried out lawn. It wasn’t as nice as all the other houses, but it was like a mansion for Keith, and he stared at it in awe.

He turned to Shiro to voice his approval but realised that his brother’s eyes were welling up with tears.  
“We’re finally going to have a good life,” he whispered. Keith laughed and punched him playfully.

“Don’t go soft on me now, I wanna see my room!”

Shiro snapped out of his pride-induced daze and hopped out of the beaten up little truck. It once belonged to their father. If only he could see us now, Keith thought to himself.

“Okay, the real estate agent guy said he left the key under the mat. Under the mat, can you believe that? He’s going to drop by tomorrow while you’re at school.”  
Keith sprinted ahead of his brother and retrieved the key, jamming it into the lock and eagerly bursting through the front door.

The little house looked like it hadn’t been lived in for a while, but it was perfect nonetheless. A small TV sat on a stand in front of an old, comfy-looking leather couch. There was a table and some chairs on the other side of the room and the wall had an opening to showcase the cozy kitchen with a fridge, stove, sink and countertop. Keith didn’t care about these however, and he looked at Shiro with a sense of urgency- to the amusement of his brother.

“Your room is over there, Keith.” Shiro pointed to a door and Keith rushed over to open it.

It took Keith a second to realise the door was push, not pull and then he finally managed to stumble into his room. He already loved it. There was a double bed (finally!) and a desk and he already knew where he would put his stuff.

“Shiro, it’s amazing!” he shouted, ripping open his bag and beginning to unpack. His weed, booze and porn went under the bed, MCR and Pearl Jam posters went up on the walls and his few clothing items got haphazardly chucked into the closet. 

When he emerged from his room Shiro was gone and there was a note scribbled on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge.  
Going out to get food, back soon. S  
Well, this means Keith got some time to himself. Usually this meant recreational drug use but this time Keith decided he’d go out and explore, scope out the spots and figure out how the police patrols worked.

-

So, turns out there aren’t frequent cop patrols in the nice suburban town, meaning unfortunately that adventure was a bust.

“Shiro’s probably home by now,” Keith muttered to himself and turned back in the direction of his house. Wait, that’s the direction of his old place. Okay, now he’s going in the direction of his house. 

It was peacefully quiet as he began his way back. It slightly unnerved him, the sky was beginning to go orange and the only screams were those of children playing. As he turned the corner to his street, he noticed a group of people his age sitting together eating ice cream cones on a patch of grass in front of a beautiful house.

They noticed him and Keith put his head down, pulling up his hood and shoving his hands in his pockets. If he stared, he’d definitely get into some sort of trouble.

Despite his instincts, curiosity won out and Keith stole a glance at the group. There were four of them, two girls, one with gorgeous white hair and the other looked like a… small elf. There were also two tanned boys, they appeared to be cuddling. Two boys cuddling in public without being threatened? This is paradise.

After his stolen look, Keith turned his face back to the path and heard the loud whispers of the teens talking about him. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

The rest of the trip home was quite uneventful, which put Keith further on edge. Although it seems crazy, he kinda missed running from everyone he’d ever stolen off, whether it be their money or their boyfriend. Or, in one case, their Turkish street meat.

The familiar smell of Chinese food flooded Keith’s nose as he opened the door. He smiled and joined Shiro at the table.

“I can’t believe we can eat at a table now instead of on the floor,” Shiro laughed, digging into his fried rice. 

“I can’t believe I can just… walk down the street,” Keith pondered.

“It’s different here, but I think it’s better,” Shiro nodded, “and I think you’re gonna have a great time at school tomorrow.”

-

Fun tip, if anyone ever says “you’re going to have a great time at school tomorrow” they are lying and should never be trusted.

Keith was a total outsider, right from when he stepped in the gate. His cropped red jacket, slightly torn black shirt, jeans, combat boots and leather fingerless gloves stuck out like a sore thumb, not to mention his mop of black mullet. He was momentarily relieved he had sewed the sheath of his knife into the inside his jeans. Could be a safety issue, but Keith made the sheath from strong leather he definitely didn’t steal from anywhere.

Keith was careful to keep his guard up, taking quick looks at the schedule Shiro gave him in order to find his first class. Trigonometry. Who even cares about triangles?

Wait, knives are triangle. 

Nevermind, Keith cares about triangles.

The class gawked at him as he awkwardly walked into the classroom. He noticed all the people he saw eating ice cream yesterday were in this class. The only open seat was next to one of the tanned boys. Keith sighed, held his breath and sat down, resisting the urge to hold the handle of his knife like a weird psycho.

“The name’s Lance,” the stranger schmoozed, holding out a hand.  
Warily, Keith made eye contact with him and shook his hand. He noticed Lance’s eyes were a pretty blue colour. He made sure not to look for too long.

“Keith Kogane?” the teacher called and Keith immediately wanted to die.

“Uh, yes?” he groaned.

“Come up here and introduce yourself to the class.”

Reluctantly, Keith took the walk of shame to the front of the classroom.  
“I’m Keith Kogane. I just moved here.”

Keith didn’t make eye contact with anyone as he felt the joyless eyes of the classroom bore into him. One moment of weakness would leave him vulnerable.  
Deciding not to say any more, he just sat back down, almost wanting to giggle because of the adrenaline flushing through him.

Suddenly, the door burst back open and a new person was entering the classroom. The class went silent as he slammed his hands down on Keith’s desk.

“This is my seat. Get out or taste my knuckles.”  
Aw, a little rich kid whose parents divorced and now he’s on a ‘bad path.’ I’m so scared, Keith thought to himself, and smiled at his provoker. The kid was a lot bigger than him, with brown, middle-parted hair and a surprisingly good-looking face. 

“I’m not moving, big guy, so don’t even bother,” Keith challenged, confidence exuding from him. He was an expert in standing up to douches.

“You’re gonna pay for this, emo kid,” the loser snarled and stomped off to another empty seat.  
Where did this guy learn his bullying tactics, high school musical? 

“Alright James, settle down,” the teacher nervously laughed, putting up a powerpoint.

Keith noticed Lance looking at him, and whipped his head around to face him.  
“Why are you looking at me?” Keith grumbled. He was a little bit pissed off at all the staring that he’d experienced in his short time in this town.

“Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me and some of my friends, I think they’d like to meet you. We’re gonna all come to my house tonight, I’ll give you the address. And um,” Lance moved close to whisper in Keith’s ear, “if you have any… substances bring them. My parents only have like, craft beer.”

Keith laughed, drawing attention from everyone around him. “Alright then.”

Watching in amusement, Keith almost felt a little bit of emotion tug at his heart as Lance did some type of happy dance that he had never seen anyone do before. 

But Keith doesn’t do… crushes. He just fucks and leaves. Him being orphaned made Shiro the only person he wanted to be close to, just because he couldn’t stand to get close to anyone else. Lance was cute, but it’s not like Keith wanted anything to do with him, like, romantically or whatever. 

That was out of the question.


	2. Chapter 2

Keith rummaged under his bed for anything to bring to the ‘party.’  
Only five people were going so it could probably just be classed as a meetup.

“Perfect,” Keith muttered as he pulled out his box of illegal shit. There were two half bottles of cranberry vodka, because Keith is a man of class (also they were closest to the door when he stole them from a liquor store), and a joint. He could get cross-faded without getting too crazy.

He slipped the joint into the waistband of his underwear and poured one vodka into the other so he didn’t have to carry both. Since there didn’t appear to be any patrols he didn’t have to worry about being searched, so he just put the alcohol into his backpack. 

“Shiro, I’m going out. I’ll be back, like, sometime.”

“Okay,” Shiro absentmindedly agreed, doing some legal house-buying paperwork shit.

It wasn’t a long walk to Lance’s house as this town was just so... cute. As he approached the address he recognised the house. It was the one he and his friends had been sitting on the day before. Maybe now Keith would find out what they had been whispering about him.

Not sure how to approach a suburban party, Keith just went up to the doorstep and knocked. Usually, the door was wide open and one of his drinking buddies was there to give him a hug and a shot, and Keith felt a sudden flash of sadness as he missed his city.

Before he could dwell on it any longer, the door opened and there was Lance. Keith finally got a chance to really look at him, and it was an amazing sight. One thing Keith particularly noticed was his legs, long and slender. Nice thighs too.

“Hey,” Keith said with a slight smile, laying on the good old fashioned Kogane charm.

“Come in,” Lance blushed, almost wishing his other friends weren’t here.

The house was beautiful, big but not like a mansion, it felt like a home with kids toys laying about and the smell of coffee and vanilla wafting through the air.

Keith followed Lance to the basement, a white lady’s Pinterest dream of canopies, bean bags and cushioned couches.  
Lance’s friends gazed up at Keith with judging eyes, as if they were evaluating him.

“These are my friends,” Lance introduced, pointing to each one as he called their name.  
Pidge was the goblin, Allura the one with the hair, Hunk the other tanned boy. Gotta remember that.

“So what did you bring? Ooh, do you have casserole? I’d kill for a casserole right now- oh wait, pizza! Mmh, Lance can we order pizza?” Hunk walked over and stood next to Lance, linking their arms.

“It’s not much, and I don’t have food, but it’s better than craft beer,” Keith mumbled as he unzipped his backpack, pulling out the now full bottle of cranberry vodka and then pulling the joint out of the waistband of his underwear. He noticed Lance was looking at him like he was the coolest person he’d ever seen.  
“Where did you get this from?” Pidge exclaimed, admiring Keith’s offerings.

“Just the stuff I brought from my old place, I know it’s not too impressive,” Keith grimaced, looking at the obviously opened bottle.

“Where is your old place?” Allura stood up from the couch and walked up to him, analysing his face like she could unlock all his secrets.

“The city out from here. Anburon.”

“Whereabouts in the city?”

Ugh, Keith didn’t want to have to tell them. So he lied.  
“North Anburon?” 

Gosh, he’s a bad liar. But Allura somehow bought it.  
“Huh. My aunt is from there.”

Trying to avoid the topic, Keith passed the bottle to Hunk first, who stared at it with pure terror.  
“Uh, I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Not to peer pressure or anything,” Lance said smugly, “but you’re a pussy.”  
He plucked it from Hunk’s hands and took a swig, immediately choking.  
Keith wanted to laugh, he wanted to laugh so bad. But he doesn’t laugh with boys. Not even when they’re being extremely cute.

“Now cool kid Keith is judging me!” Lance complained after he finished his very painful mouthful, dragging out the end of the ‘me’ as he dramatically dropped to his knees. 

“Maybe I should confiscate this,” Keith said with slight amusement and pulled the vodka out of poor Lance’s cold, dead hands.  
He took a smooth shot from the bottle before he put it back into his backpack and felt pleasantly amused at the admiration on all his peer’s faces.

“I’m just gonna go get the craft beer,” Lance pouted, springing back up to his feet and exiting in search of God’s gift to rich middle-aged family men.

Without Lance’s bouncy energy in the room, an uncomfortable silence developed, and Keith felt like an unwanted presence. He didn’t know what to say, and obviously the others in the room didn’t either. It was a huge relief when Lance came back wielding the beer and sound filled the room again.

“I wanna get thrashed guys. How many beers do you have to drink to get thrashed?” Lance announced, looking at Keith.

“If you wanna get drunk you’re gonna have to drink a revolting amount of craft beer very quickly,” Keith laughed, not bothering to hide it anymore. There was a strange buzzing in his stomach, which was confusing because he’d only had one shot.

“Oh fuck it. Guess I’ll drink that disgusting cranberry vodka.”

Keith grinned in approval and retrieved the bottle from his bag, passing it round the circle

“I want to do something,” groans Lance after a swig, scrunching his face up as the alcohol burns his throat.

“Truth or dare?” suggests the little elf named Pidge.  
What a weird name, Keith absentmindedly thought to himself as he looked at her. 

“That is a great idea, Pidge you amazing human!” Lance jumped up, examining everyone’s faces for approval.  
There was a unanimous shrug of agreement around the circle and Lance fist bumped the air, gesturing to all his friends to sit in a circle on the floor.

“Um... truth or dare... Keith?” he says as a wave of embarrassment washes over Keith and his cheeks flush.  
What are you doing, Keith? You’ve never acted like this before, he scolded himself and completely forgot that Lance had asked him in the first place.

“Uhm, Keith?” Lance inquired, and Keith snapped out of his trance.

“Oh, uh, dare. Of course.”

Lance glanced across to Hunk, unsure what to say. It was only when he noticed Allura’s interested expression that he had a genius idea.  
“Seven minutes in heaven with Allura!” he exclaimed, reeling with excitement.

“Oh god…” Keith muttered, laughing a little bit and awkwardly avoiding Allura’s eyes.

“Lance I will make you pay for this,” Allura said in her scarily smooth voice.

“Is that a threat or a promise?” he crooned, smirking. Keith couldn’t help the feeling of warmth that enveloped him at that, blushing again.  
Stupid blood rushing to my stupid face showing my stupid emotions. How dare he be so cute.

“Hey!” Hunk reached over and slapped Lance.

Lance indignantly brushed himself off, making his friends laugh.  
“Why aren’t we laughing at Keith and Allura? They have to make out! Go on lovebirds, the closet is that-a-way,” he taunted, pointing to an unfortunately small pair of doors in the corner.  
Keith groaned and opened the door for Allura. If he was going to go down he was going to go down like a gentleman.

After he closed the closet door behind them he realised he couldn’t see a thing, but he could, however, hear everyone right outside the door,  
giggling.  
He wanted to just punch something so bad, or better yet, stab someone.

“Those idiots, honestly,” said Allura, breaking his train of thought. 

“We can hear you!” Lance dramatically cried from the other side of the door, and Keith and Allura burst into laughter. 

“Well how much longer is it?”

“Uh… Pidge how much time do they have left?” called Lance.

“Wait, I thought Hunk was timing!”

So no one has any idea how long we’ve been in here?... Well fuck.

“We are coming out!” Allura announced, opening the door and knocking everyone outside to the ground.

“Wow, guys, really smooth,” Keith rolled his eyes as he stepped over Hunk.

“That totally wasn’t seven minutes,” Pidge complained as she rubbed her sore nose.

“Come on, people. It’s my turn anyway. Hunk, truth or dare?” Keith asked, flashing a shit-eating grin at the teens lying on the floor.

“Truth,” Hunk answered, and everyone groaned.  
“Come on guys, what else did you expect from me.”

“Hmm… Hunk. Truth. Let me think,” Keith pondered for a second before a thought rushed into his brain and he impulsively blurted out. “Is Lance a good kisser?”

“Um, that’s a weird question but... yeah I guess, he’s the first person I ever kissed so like-“

“Of course I’m a good kisser, but what I want to know is why Keith asked that!” Lance interrupted with a loud outburst.

He needed to think of an excuse, fast.  
“Because, um, I thought you looked like a terrible kisser. No offence.”  
Smooth, Keith. Not.

Offended, Lance pretended to wipe away tears.

“Anyway,” Hunk loudly cut through the tension, “it’s my turn. Lance, truth or dare.”

Distracted, Lance forgot about Keith’s insult. Phew.  
“Dare, do you even have to ask?”

Hunk gritted his teeth and scratched his head.  
“This is gonna be intense… I dare you to go to the bad part of town.”

Lance gasped at his friend’s words.  
“I’ll actually die!”

Confused, Keith looked from Hunk to Lance and then back to Hunk.  
“There’s a bad part of town?”

The other members of the group glanced at each other and Pidge adjusted her glasses, preparing to tell a story.  
“So, you know how our town is so nice? Well, it’s not like that everywhere. Across the train tracks, there’s a part of town where a bunch of people have disappeared and there are tons of gangs. It’s really unsafe and ever since we were kids we’ve been told to never cross the train tracks, or even go near them.”

Keith had to hold back a scoff. Sounds like a load of horseshit.

“I can’t go alone,” Lance moaned, shaking Hunk’s arm.

“Fine, I guess you can choose someone to go with you… But not me. Oh God, not me.”

“I mean Keith, you seem like you know what you’re doing, you want to come?” Lance asked awkwardly. Keith found it funny how nervous he  
was.

“Sure, I bet it's going to be boring though. What do you want to do?”

“We could just get booze and go, yep, that’s easy, not scary, mmhmm,” Lance muttered quietly. Keith noticed goosebumps on his arms.

“Dude are you okay, you don’t have to do this,” said Hunk worriedly, rubbing Lance’s arm. 

“No it's totally fine- I’m not a pussy! I can do this!” He jumps up, almost in a manic manner, and grabs Keith by the wrist, “let’s go!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can't believe how fast we got to 100 hits! i really enjoy writing this and i know frankie does too. things are going to get a lot more interesting so buckle up!
> 
> piper


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as they left the house Keith noticed Lance was already on edge, rocking nervously on the balls of his feet.   
On the other hand, Keith was almost looking forward to it, wondering to himself if it would be like home as Lance led him through the streets.  
The only thing making Keith nervous was his primal male instincts telling him that he and Lance were alone at night and that he should definitely take advantage of this, but he brushed away the thought.

“I’m actually really nervous,” Lance admitted as they steered off the road and towards the woods.

“Yeah, I know,” Keith chuckled but stopped as soon as he realised Lance was giving him a look.

“Are you not nervous at all?!” Lance exasperatedly sighed, shivering as they reached the trees.

“Oh yeah, I’m definitely anxious. This is very scary.”

It was almost sad how bad Keith was at lying but Lance was too absorbed in his nerves to notice. Keith knew he had his knife tucked into its comfortable sheath he sewed into the side of his jeans so that it was concealed from sight. It grounded him, it was actually kind of therapeutic to remember that it was with him constantly.

After a few minutes of silently trudging through the trees, they reached the rails, overgrown and graffitied to the point of no return.  
Keith eagerly jumped over them and held out a hand to Lance, who was barely keeping it together. 

“Look,” Keith said, turning around and holding Lance by the shoulders, “If you are that uncomfortable, we can go back and grab food from the corner store and make something up about stealing from a dodgy prostitute.”

Lance giggled and made eye contact with Keith. He couldn’t help but admire the intensity of his blue eyes and he mentally slapped himself as he let his eyes wander to Lance’s lips for a split second.

“No, I actually want to do this,” Lance grinned, “plus you make me feel safer.”

Oh my fucking god he is so cute. What the hell. Who said this was fair.  
“Oh. Okay, great,” Keith awkwardly smiled and mentally slapped himself yet again.

Trying to forget about his chronic awkwardness, Keith led the way through the second half of the woods leading to the ‘bad part of town.’  
Lance’s shoulders were tense and Keith wanted to rub them and tell him everything would be okay. He really is being turned soft by this town.

They finally emerged from the trees and Keith began to hear the same dodgy noises he held so dear: car alarms, bins being rustled around, dogs barking, etc.

“Let’s hit up the first liquor store we find,” Keith grinned brightly, feeling as if he was back at home.

Lance was not feeling as hot, and Keith had to wait a couple of minutes for him to take deep breaths before the two walked down to the street.  
“Do you have any money?”

“Oh, we aren’t gonna pay,” Keith smirked. The adrenaline was bringing back his confidence.

“Damn! Okay well there’s one over there,” Lance pointed to a glowing sign on the corner of the block. 

“Well, since this is your first time you should just watch. We don't want you screwing stuff up and getting us caught.”

“Keep talking like that and this evening will be a lot more interesting… Wait what the fuck!? You have robbed a liquor store?!” Lance double takes.

“Shut up or you’re gonna get us caught! And, um… no, of course not! I’ve just watched a bunch of TV, but just like... keep the salesperson occupied okay? You go in first and ask about the wine or something and I’ll go in and grab a bottle of good shit. Then we get the fuck out.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lance says before heading over to the shop. 

“Um excuse me ma’am do you stock Pinot Noir?” he asked as Keith sidled in.

“Can I see your ID?” she asked, clearly knowing they are underage.

Keith grabbed the nearest bottle of alcohol and yells-  
“RUN!”

They legged it out of the store, Lance a few strides ahead of Keith because of his long legs. The poor woman doesn’t even attempt to chase them and just screams profanities, causing Keith to breathlessly laugh.

They didn’t stop running for several blocks until they find themselves beside a dark alley, panting desperately.

“I can’t fucking believe I did that,” Lance said in disbelief, almost bouncing out of his skin with adrenaline pounding through his veins.

“That was awesome,” Keith agrees. He looks down and realises what he’s holding- a bottle of tequila. 

“Should we open it?” Lance asked and Keith nods, unscrewing the lid and taking a long drink. Even Keith, being an experienced drinker, screwed his face up as he’s not used to drinking tequila without lime or salt or something to blend with the strong taste.

He passed it to Lance who barely managed to swallow a mouthful before making gag noises. 

Lance placed the bottle on the ground and looked at Keith.  
“That was really cool.”

Getting the drift, Keith moved an inch closer.  
“It was kinda fun.”

Their lips were almost touching when Keith heard a click he was all too familiar with behind them. Someone was pointing a gun at them.

Keith slowly turned around, holding his hands out to show them he had no weapon.  
There were four men, full of themselves and sniggering away. 

The guy with the gun looked at Lance, who was frozen in place.  
“Put your hands up, fool!”

Lance trembled like a leaf as he held his hands out.

Why does this happen to me? Keith thought to himself, almost rolling his eyes before realising that would get him shot.

Luckily for them, the head idiot made the mistake of standing too close with the gun.  
That left him exposed.  
Keith easily smacked the gun out of his hand before the goons could even realise what was happening. 

When they did realise, however, they were very angry and charged at him. 

Reaching into his concealed sheath and pulling his knife out, Keith let out a yell of rage, his blood boiling.  
How dare they threaten us! I’m going to fucking end these assholes.

It was easy to take down the first guy, Keith just had to punch him in the nose and plunge the knife into his leg to create a shallow yet painful wound, twisting it before pulling it out and shoving the guy to the side as he screamed like a baby. As he was preoccupied with the first one, the second imbecile got in a punch to his face and he almost fell back but luckily caught himself. 

It was like fighting a literal child as he easily overpowered the man double his size, tripping him up by twisting his leg around the idiot’s and slashing his arm, using his pain to take him off guard and push him. Keith was still outnumbered two to one however, and he cried out as one of the remaining men twisted his left arm back, a cracking sound echoing through the alley amongst the cries of the thugs he stabbed.

He almost thought he was going to be overwhelmed but he heard Lance yell something out and one of the men stopped.  
Lance had the gun to the thug’s head.  
Oh my god he is truly the man for me.

Despite Lance’s help, there was still one guy fighting him and his arm was on fire.

“Pick on somebody your own fucking size!” Keith growled as he put all the effort left in his body into hitting this moron in the head with a solid right hook and slamming him against the wall, slowly dragging the tip of his knife across the ugly face in front of him. Blood dripped down the blade and once he thought he’d taught the loser a good enough lesson he let him go and watched him collapse to the ground.

Lance was still holding the last standing goon at gunpoint.  
“Run away now or I’ll shoot you,” he whispered breathlessly and the stunned man sprinted off, leaving Keith and Lance alone with the incapitated men.

Giving them one last look, Keith left the alley, Lance following suit. 

“What the fuck? Where did you learn to fight like that… Like, who even are you, Keith Kogane? -If that's even your real name?!” Lance cried, looking like he’d just been electrocuted.

Ok, this guy is just messing now but... what do I do? I feel bad, I know this is a terrible idea but I should probably tell him where I'm from…

“My name is Keith Kogane, you got that right, but um, well... you know how I said I was from North Anburon? Well, uh, I’m actually I'm from the south. I grew up there with my brother, I'm an orphan..”

Jesus Christ, I'm just telling everything to this dude! For fuck’s sake we met today, what am I even doing here? What kind of fucked up god let this happen?

“Who cares where you're from? You beat the shit out of those assholes anyway. You saved me,” Lance mumbled, looking right into Keith's eyes and making his heart go all fluttery despite his arm feeling like someone had just run it over with a bus.

“Why are you so goddamn cute, even when you’re in shock?” he sighed.  
Oh shit Keith said that. He really said that out loud! It must be the tequila. And the vodka.

“Well, I guess it's just good genes.” Lance said smirking a little, lifting one eyebrow. Maybe his reaction to adrenaline is to flirt like a tipsy cougar. 

Keith rolled his eyes, turned and began running before he could say anything else stupid. He called over his shoulder,  
“‘C'mon we need to leave before the cops get here!”

Lance realised, yes, he was on the scene of a crime and followed Keith all the way to the woods where they first entered the town.  
He realised Keith was holding in the pain from his arm, which was twisted at a disgusting angle and Lance was pretty sure that was a bit of bone sticking out. His face was also developing a scary bruise from where he was punched.

“Is it bad that you look really hot right now,” Lance mumbled, blushing.

“What? I look a mess,” Keith said defensively.

“Your hair’s all messed up, you’ve got all these cuts and scratches- oh, and you just fought off three grown men with a knife which is like the hottest thing ever…”

If Keith wasn’t in such pain he would totally take advantage of this moment but another stab of hot lava erupted in his arm and he winced, almost collapsing but Lance managed to hold him up. 

“We need to get you to a hospital!” Lance panicked, realising how bad Keith’s arm really was.

“That’s the worst idea, I’ve ever heard,” Keith panted. “You need to take me to Shiro.”

“What? Where’s Shiro?” Lance asked, stress lines forming on his forehead.

“Shiro’s my brother. I live on 22 Kerberos road. Just… help me get there.”

A concerned Lance helped Keith across the tracks and back through the streets of nice, happy Fort Gatin. Nobody called an ambulance because nobody was out this late at night. Or- this early in the morning. It was roughly 1 AM. 

They stumbled to the door and Shiro answered looking like he’d just fallen out of bed. He’d seen Keith wounded before many times, so he knew just what to do. Lance could only watch as Shiro lay Keith on the couch and did something that looked incredibly painful to his arm. 

“Keith, all I ask is for you to be good for, like, a couple days as we settle in to this nice little town, but here you are, broken arm, on our couch,” Shiro lectured to Keith, who was biting down on a pillow and gave him a death glare through the pain.

“I have that old stolen splint from the last time you broke your arm, let me get it and try to re-fit it,” Shiro sighed and left the room to go rummage through some boxes.

Lance rushed to Keith’s side and admired the latter’s face, jaw clenched and forehead glistening with sweat.  
“You’re so badass,” he giggled, brushing the hair out of Keith’s eyes and making him laugh before the pain sent twenty needles into his arm.   
Keith wanted to lean close to Lance and kiss him like he couldn’t before, but unfortunately Shiro came back into the room bearing a splint.

Interrupted AGAIN.

“Hey Keith,” Shiro chuckled inwardly, “remember that one time you got attacked by a Turkish street meat dealer?”

Lance burst out laughing and stared at Keith in disbelief. 

Shiro’s the best wingman ever. NOT.

“Yes that happened, but I’m not elaborating.”

Lance hit him with the good old fashioned puppy eyes. “Please…”

Keith groaned.  
“Fine… It was a Friday night and I was high after smoking with Caleb, you don’t know him…obviously. But anyway, I was on my way home and this guy was selling Turkish street meat on the corner and I thought it was hilarious, so I may have grabbed a falafel or two and was running away when he throws a rotisserie fork at me and it hits me in the ass! So obviously I fall the fuck over and he comes over and just jumps on my leg and I’m like ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ and I just stood up and hit him so hard, let’s just say he wasn’t able to eat any more street meat for a little while. My leg was so mangled, you wouldn’t believe.”

Lance was trying very hard not to laugh but wasn’t doing a great job at hiding it.

“Hey, cut it out, it really fucking hurt! Do you want me to stab you with a rotisserie fork just to prove it? No, didn’t think so.”


	4. Chapter 4

Shiro gave Keith and Lance one of his famous disapproving looks.   
“It’s really late and Keith has already broken his arm, I don’t think he should be going out again.”

Keith scoffed.   
“That’s funny cause you aren’t my mom. So, see you tomorrow. Just, like, go back to sexting with   
Adam.”

Shiro turned bright red.  
“Hey, have you been reading my Grindr messa- WAIT no, I don’t know an Adam. Huh, who’s he? Gosh… so tired, I’m going to sleep- bye!” he slammed his bedroom door very awkwardly, leaving Keith and Lance on their own again. 

“Well, guess we’re going back to yours then,” Keith said gruffly, trying to somewhat bring back his bad-boy image after Lance’s cuteness had ripped it to pieces and turned him into some kind of Peeta when he was definitely more like Gale.

“Only if you want to,” Lance blushed, looking at his hands.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Keith playfully smirked and led the way out of the door.

-

“Do you think they’re going to be worried about us?” Lance suddenly realised as they reached the door of his house.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Keith muttered and opened the door, hastily making his way to the basement.

It was carnage.

They’d obviously drank quite a bit more and the vodka bottle was almost empty.

Hunk was curled up in the corner, crying and mumbling about getting Lance murdered. Allura was trying to plan how to find the boys but was so drunk she could barely speak properly. 

Most disturbing of all was Pidge, who seemed to be trying to flirt with Allura, climbing into her lap and stroking her hair murmuring words like,   
“Are you a magnet? Because you’re very attractive! But seriously you are so pretty, oh my god, your hair is just… Lance!”

“We struggled, we had to fight off a real-life gang yet here we stand, more alive than we’ve ever been!” Lance cried with a dramatic flair, shaking his fist in the air.  
“Lance, I thought it was my fault that you died and everyone would hate me forever!” Hunk sobbed, squeezing Lance into a massive bear hug.

“What… what happened to Keef?” Allura slurred, stumbling over to them.

“Holy shit,” Pidge observed, examining Keith’s bruised face and splint.

“Just… tripped over?” Keith fibbed, and Lance shoved him, making him wince.

“He saved me and fought off like three dudes. It was so fucking badass.”

“If I wasn’t wasted right now I would totally say you’re lying,” Hunk cried into Lance’s shoulder.

“Where… where would Keith even learn to fight like that?” Allura asked sceptically, sticking a hand on her hip.

“I took, uh… judo classes in North Anburon.”

“Hm,” Allura nodded.

Wow, she’s really bad at reading a liar.

Just wanting to forget the pain in his arm, Keith finished off the bottle of cranberry vodka and had it immediately snatched from his hands by Pidge.  
“Finally! I was waiting for someone to finish that bottle so I could say that we should play spin the bottle!” She howled, and placed the bottle on the ground, pulling Hunk and Lance apart so she could demand they sit in a circle.

“I’m going first!” Allura screeched and span the bottle roughly, causing it to spin rather fast.  
It landed on Pidge, to her absolute disappointment. Pidge, however, was extremely excited by this and slapped a drunken kiss to Allura’s lips, who immediately faux-gagged.  
“Ewww. Hunk, your turn.”

Hunk nervously span the empty bottle and celebrated as it landed on Lance.  
Keith almost felt like he was invading their privacy as Lance jumped into Hunk’s lap and began eating his face. 

“You… disgust me…” Allura murmured, swaying a little bit. Keith suspected she would be out of action in about ten minutes or so.

Lance, after he pulled himself away from Hunk, now realised that it was his turn, and gave everyone in the circle a flirty look before he span the bottle with an elegant flick of his wrist.

Please don’t land on me, Keith begged to whichever god would answer, I’ll die.

It landed on Keith.

Lance’s extroverted attitude immediately died out and his eyes widened with a mixture of shock and fear, which is not something you want to see on the face of someone who is about to kiss you.

Come on, Keith. You’re the best at this. You’ve stolen more boyfriends than Cindy the hoe.

… It’s a South Anburon thing.

“So, um-“ Lance began to say, but Keith moved forwards and firmly grasped Lance’s face in his hand, making eye contact with him for the slightest second before connecting their lips in one smooth motion.

Keith brushed his thumb along Lance’s cheek as their lips moved together, feeling the brunette’s hair brushing against the side of his face. He could taste the tequila on his lips and felt his head throb, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. This was perfect. It was more meaningful than any kiss he’d ever had, even the sober ones.

It broke his heart when Lance pulled away, but it was worth it when Keith saw the shy smile on his face. 

“Ok boys wrap it up, show’s over, chop-chop, we get it!” Allura cut in, ruining the moment.

Keith brushed himself off and spun the bottle, flashing Lance a cocky smile, knowing it would drive him crazy. The bottle lands on… Allura!

“Fuck, well get it over with.” She groans.  
Keith leans over and kisses Allura. There are no fireworks like there were with Lance but she got pretty into it, being drunk and all.   
Just to piss him off, Keith opened his eyes and winked complacently at Lance while snogging Allura, and broke away laughing when Lance gave him the middle finger.

Pidge was about to spin when she quickly glanced at her watch and did a double-take.  
“Guys… its 3 am and we have school tomorrow!” 

“Shit!” Lance yelled. “We gotta get to sleep! You guys can crash here if you need, I guess.” 

“That's great ‘n all, but, uh… where can we sleep?” Hunk piped up.

“Well there’s down here for Pidge, and my room is all yours, Hunk. Then there’s the guest room if you want that, Allura, and I can go in my parent's room.”

“Hey what about me?” Keith asks indignantly. 

Maybe I should just go, but... then again maybe I’ll get to share with Lance?  
No. that could never happen.

“You can bunk with me if you want.“ Lance nervously suggested, fiddling with his hands.   
There was that weird feeling in Keith’s stomach again, all warm and fuzzy like in a romance novel. He really needed to stop, this was getting out of hand.

Pidge and Allura exchanged a look as Lance went totally fangirl, awkwardly blushing and avoiding eye contact with Keith.

“I hate to interrupt whatever Lance and Keith are doing, but if we don’t go to sleep now we’ll literally be corpses in the morning. Hunk already puked like four times while you were gone,” Pidge cut through the tension.

Everyone exchanged a nod of agreement and retreated to their separate rooms.

As soon as Lance closed the door he offered some clothes to Keith.  
“Uh, you probably don’t want to sleep in jeans so here are some of my pyjamas… don’t judge that they have Spiderman on them.”

Keith laughed.   
“Of course I’m not going to judge your Spiderman pyjamas. I wish I had Spiderman pyjamas.”

Keith took his shirt off and Lance turned a shade of red resembling that of a strawberry.

After a moment of awkward silence, Keith coughed.  
“Uh, Lance?... Are you gonna turn around so I can get changed?”

“Oh, uh yes! I was definitely planning on doing that,” Lance cringed and turned around, seriously considering jumping out the window. It wasn’t his fault that Keith had like… a nice chest or whatever. And nice collarbones. And a surprising undertone of abs-

“I’m done. You can turn back around now,” Keith interrupted Lance’s train of thought, probably for the better.

Taking advantage of Lance being completely incapacitated with awkwardness, Keith decided to make him even more awkward and didn’t waste any time getting into Lance’s parent's bed (which, to be honest, was slightly weird) and getting comfortable.

Lance’s shirt was slightly big on Keith so the neck left his collar bones exposed, which he knew were really hot. He stared at the ceiling with his hand rested comfortably under his head, fully aware of the fact that Lance was totally checking him out.

“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” Keith remarked, making Lance practically die out of embarrassment.  
Trying to act like he wasn’t being bothered anymore, Lance got into the bed next to Keith. He could smell his cologne under the thick alcohol smell. It was obviously quite cheap but Lance enjoyed the scent nonetheless.

“Come here,” Keith said to Lance, taking him off guard. 

“Wh- what?” Lance stumbled over his words, not sure if the alcohol was making him hallucinate this.

“Do you want to make out or not?” Keith offered, looking completely cool, while Lance was freaking out on the inside.

Little did Lance know that Keith was totally panicking inside too, despite doing a great job of covering it up.

What if he actually doesn’t want to? That would be so awkward… 

“Yeah, I do want to,” Lance said bashfully, brushing away Keith’s worries.

Keith half-smiled and pulled Lance onto him, kissing him with the same energy he had during the game of spin the bottle, except this time there was nobody watching them.

He closed his eyes and let the intoxicating feel of Lance overcome him, threading his fingers through the brunette's hair. The little warmth in his stomach consumed him, flowing all over his body, making him feel alive. Keith let his hands wander all over Lance as if to map out every inch of him.

Eventually, Lance pulled away, draining some of the emotions overflowing from Keith.  
“Hey man, we should really get to sleep we are gonna be wrecked tomorrow. Night!”

What a tease.

Disappointed and not used to being pulled away from, Keith curled up next to Lance and found himself easily falling into a slumber despite his usual insomnia.  
Something about Lance just made it so easy to be himself, and even though he’d known him for only a short period of time, Keith suspected he’d be falling hard for the first time ever.

-

Keith’s alarm went off at 5 AM and he drifted awake, stretching and yawning. He smiled pleasantly at Lance, who looked like he had just died and come back to life.   
“Wake up Lance, school in two hours,” he whispered into the brunette’s ear, shaking him a little bit.

Lance didn’t respond.

“Lance I swear to God I will rip those curtains open.”

Lance groaned and sat up. There were huge   
bags under his eyes.  
“You are not seriously waking me up with 2 hours   
before school.”

“You need to shower. You smell like you just crawled through a sewer pipe.”

“Okay mom, jeez. You’re so awake right now it’s blowing my mind.”

“One time I went to school after 48 hours with no sleep when Carl had his 16th birthday party over the weekend. I was so hungover I passed out during gym and I woke up after school had ended.”

“Didn’t anyone wake you up?”

“The teachers were glad for one less student. The ten-dollar bill I had in my pocket was gone also. And my socks.”

Lance laughed, his voice still a bit croaky.  
“I’m not sure if I believe you.”

“No, trust me!” Keith nudged him. “Shiro will swear on it as well.”

Lance paused for a moment.  
“Well, you’ve successfully woken me up, so I’m going to have a shower. I still hate you for being so fine right now.”

Keith fought off the cute domestic feeling he felt as Lance dopily smiled at him, swinging his legs off the bed and heading to the bathroom. Lance’s parents had an ensuite. That’s so awesome.

An idea popped into Keith’s head as he heard the shower spray begin.   
He quietly let himself into the bathroom. Lance was blocked from sight by a curtain.  
Keith cleared his throat and Lance peeked his head out from behind the drape and his eyes doubled in size.  
“Keith! What are you doing in here?!”

“Room for one more in there?”

“Jesus Christ,” Lance grumbled, his head disappearing back behind the curtain. “No, I don’t forgive you for waking me up.”

“Come on… Don’t be a tease again.”

There was no response as Lance began whistling, obviously ignoring him.

Keith frowned. It wasn’t normal for guys to decline an invitation to be naked with him.  
“Your loss,” he remarked and let himself out, deciding he was going to wake up everyone else.

First was Hunk in Lance’s room. The smell of coconut moisturizer in Lance’s room made Keith smile.   
“Wake up, sunshine… School in an hour and a half.”

Hunk just kept drooling into Lance’s blue pillowcase.

“Hunk?...”

“No.”

“Get up.”

“No.”

“I’ll make you breakfast?”

Hunk jumped out of bed with a smile on his face.  
“Keith, I love you. You’re my new best friend.”

Keith smiled and left to go wake up Allura and Pidge.  
Allura was going to be next, she was closest- in the guest room.

“Allura?” Keith tapped the girl’s shoulder. She coughed and looked at him with murderous eyes before leaping out of bed and attempting to attack Keith.  
“At least you’re up,” he shrugged, peeling Allura off of him.

Pidge was even worse to wake up.  
Not expecting much from the little elf person, Keith entered the basement with his guard down, like a fool. “Pidge, wanna get up for school?”

“Fuck off, you dickhead. It’s five fucking thirty, go shove your head back up your ass and leave me alone, cunt!” she groaned, throwing her pillow over her head and flipping him off.

Taken aback, Keith raised his eyebrows and blinked.  
“I’m gonna give you five minutes.”

Okay, that was reasonably easy.

Keith headed back into Lance’s parent's room. His clothes from yesterday were slightly bloodstained, but what’s new.  
He stripped Lance’s Spiderman shirt and pants when Lance suddenly walked into the room, a towel around his waist.

Why is my life a young adult film?

“Oh, uh,” Lance panicked, trying to look anywhere but at Keith, who was definitely going to take advantage of this moment.

“Someone’s shy,” Keith remarked, admiring how the water dripped down Lance’s chest and stomach, and how he was fighting off a blush.

“It’s too dang early for this,” he meekly defended himself, giving up and retreating back into the bathroom to get dressed.

Keith chuckled to himself. That was a win.  
He got dressed quickly and went to the kitchen to fulfil his promise of breakfast to Hunk.  
The thing is… he wasn’t a great chef.  
Sure, he’d made like, pasta and heat up meals. Usually, he just ate cereal, 3-minute noodles and junk food from McDonald's or Panda Express. He probably would be morbidly obese if he wasn’t so lucky to have to run for his life every ten minutes.

Hunk was standing in the kitchen, his arms crossed.  
“I’ve been waiting for you, Keith. This better be frickin’ good.”

“Hmm,” Keith looked around for anything that could pass as food.  
Then he remembered there was leftover pizza in the fridge.  
“Okay, remember the amazing pizza you ate last night? What if you had that, uh, again? Heated up?”

“I DON’T CARE WHAT IT IS, JUST GET ME FOOD,” Hunk screeched with all the rage of a man whose family had been murdered.

“Jeez, okay,” Keith raised his hands in defence and shoved some pizza on a plate and stuck it in the microwave.

Pidge entered the kitchen, making gagging noises.  
“If I even smell food, I’ll puke. I’m gonna puke now. Thank you, Keith.”

Tough crowd.

“It is impossible to please all of you,” Keith complained, trying to wave away the pizza air from Pidge while trying to make sure the pizza doesn’t burn at the same time.

Allura suddenly rushed into the room, dressed but hair messy and unbrushed.   
“I need water. My throat feels like a desert.”

Keith ran her a glass of water, feeling oddly like a mother. 

“How are you alive right now, Keith… What is your secret?!” Pidge demanded, the bags under her eyes making her look more like a goblin than an elf.

“Just, practice is all.”

“You’re so smooth it’s appalling,” Allura screwed up her nose, wiping water from her mouth. 

Lance entered, wincing at the light.  
“Nothing is real except for the pain of existing.”

“Thanks, Gerard Way. Now get your stuff or we’ll be late for school.”

There was a collective groan and Pidge shot him a death glare.  
“Why is Keith our mom all of a sudden?”

“I’m just taking advantage of being the voice of reason for once in my life to feel good about myself. Now get ready or I’ll stab you like I stabbed those three alley dudes.” 

The four extremely tired teens gathered what they could find, unfortunately only Lance had school supplies because the others didn’t consider the possibility they might sleepover. It was fine for Keith though, because he could never afford all the school books and just mooched off scrap paper from everyone else. 

“I feel like it’s going to be an interesting day today,” Lance said to Keith as the group of friends left his house.

“I sure hope so,” Keith responded, winking before going over to Allura to ask her if she could spare a band for his hair. 

He liked Lance’s friends, and he liked Lance. Maybe everything would be okay here, and he could fit in like a normal kid around here. Maybe nobody else would ever find out where he came from.   
Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooooooo its been like FOREVER we completely forgot to update :/ 
> 
> sorry hope you liked the chapter tho

**Author's Note:**

> first chapter down! this book is published by two authors, frankie (me) and my friend piper :) so you might get different notes sometimes as we may alternate xox i hope you enjoyed, i’m sorry if this chapter seems fast paced because when i first started writing it i intended it to be only a one-shot. but here we are, with 9 prewritten chapters lol .


End file.
